Materials with ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties with magneto-electric coupling properties are promising candidates for information technology and device fabrication. The preparation and characterization of multiferroic materials in which ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism coexist would represent a significant milestone for the development of highly functionalized materials and devices. Such compositions would present the possibility of electrically controlling magnetic memory devices and, conversely, magnetically manipulating electric devices. In particular, organic multiferoric materials may facilitate the development of a low nonvolatile, high density, and high-speed memory device exhibiting low power consumption that may be easily and inexpensively fabricated.
A major impediment to the development of such materials has been the lack of the ability of the devices formed of such materials to function at room temperature. Although single phase and composite multiferroic studies have been reported in cold temperatures, these multiferroic composite heterostructures have shown a very large extrinsic magneto-electric effect at room temperature. For example, the reported values for the magneto-electric coupling sensitivity range from 1 V/(cm×Oe) to 6 V/(cm×Oe), and up to 21 V/(cm×Oe) for bulk composites.
There remains a need therefore, for multiferroic materials in which ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties may coexist at room temperature.